Copywriting Tips And Tricks

As a University freshman, one of the general courses I had to take involved learning the ‘fallacies of argument’ and the textbook was the well-known Straight and Crooked Thinking by Robert H. Thouless.

Debunking arguments was the most exciting part of this course for me as I uncovered the ‘tricks’ politicians and marketers use to ‘fool’ people into agreeing with them. The only other book, in my estimation, that came close to Thouless’ was Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini.

Then, I was mainly playing on the defensive as the consumer. Now I find myself on the offensive as a copywriter trying to persuade people to take action. This doesn’t mean that I’m trying to dupe people by using fallacious arguments, but I still must be aware of these strategies.

One of the most effective ways to start a sales letter, and which I often employ, is by using an “If / then” statement, such as:

“If you are thinking about hiring a copywriter (protasis), then this may be the most important message you ever read (apodosis).”

The “If” is followed by a condition and the “then” is followed by a benefit.

Another example of this type of statement as used in a headline is:

“If you give me 5 minutes I’ll show you the most powerful way to get free traffic to your website.”

This statement is very powerful because it bypasses the reader’s critical filter. (And I just used the same technique in this last sentence.)

And here’s why: The statement is structured in a logical way and therefore the reader accepts it without much probing or doubt. In other words, if the statement looks logical then it must be. And this of course is a fallacy.

So an inferential statement that is STRUCTURED logically can easily sneak under the reader’s radar as being truth.

It’s similar to, “We both know that …” “therefore”, “implies that”, “obviously” and “because”. You state the data as though it is a well-known fact and the person accepts it without question.

Now, by definition a deductive argument is made up of three important parts:

1. premises
2. inference
3. conclusion

A proposition is a simple statement of ‘fact’ which could be true or false. For example, “Texas is the largest state in America.” (A false proposition.) The building block of any argument is its propositions.

Now the premises are the assumptions on which the argument is built or the reason for accepting the argument. A conclusion in one argument can turn up as a premise for another argument.

Needless to say, in any argument you must always state your premises. Read through any written argument and you’ll see these statement introduced by words such as “obviously”, “since”, “because” and “assume”.

Now that we have the premises in place then we can move on to our step-by-step process called inferences. Once one proposition is accepted, then you can follow show how it leads logically to the acceptance of the other. Some of the inferences will be valid and some invalid.

The final proposition will be the conclusion of the argument, which you are trying to prove in the first place.

Now the danger here is that you can construct a valid argument from false premises and reach a true conclusion! (You may need to read that again.)
For example:

• Premise: All the best copywriters live in Florida

• Premise: Ray Edwards is a copywriter who lives in Florida

• Conclusion: Ray Edwards is one of the best copywriters.

But on the other hand, you cannot start with true premises and use valid deductive inferences to reach a false conclusion. In other words, a valid argument doesn’t make a valid conclusion because the initial premises could be false.

If this all sound confusing to you it’s only because of the language we are using as this method is the basis of all mathematical arguments. So you are accustomed to reasoning this way while doing Math but just using different symbols.

Since we are so accustomed to this structured logic in arguments we become less critical when we read statements with this familiar STRUCTURE. It’s the brain’s way of saving energy. Rather than going through the tedious task of analyzing these statements we simply accept them.

Just think about it: You don’t question whether a stop sign is a stop sign while driving. You automatically stop without consciously processing the meaning of the sign.

And that’s the real power of “If … then” statements and headlines. People read them and accept them because the brain is too lazy to do otherwise.

I mean who wants to go through each proposition, premise, and inference and then evaluate the validity of the argument? Don’t underestimate the power of laziness to persuade the mind.

So be sure to use the “If/then” formula and may all your conclusions be as valid as your arguments.

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Filed under: Online Copywriting